Catholic Heart

baby steps to a more 'homey' home

05:45, Saturday, January 26, 2008 .. Link

It seems to take me forever to get to my goals and dreams, simple as they are, but occasionally the Lord grants me a space of time unexpectedly, and I happen to make good use of it.

This afternoon, my 9yo took over the phone, and my little one fell asleep -- so I set to cleaning. It's been bugging me since before Christmas that my dining room table, so lovingly moved out and cleaned off and set up for family dinners, afternoon homework, and meetings and paperwork - was covered with boxes, toys, crayons, unopened mail, and two cats lounging in the midst of it all!!

Not sure how I did it - graced by God everything found a place or the trash bag - but the table and the area around it are now available and ready for family meals and a welcoming entrance to our home.

I also cleaned out the cabinet that housed my mother's old cookbooks - most of which we don't use because they are gourmet cookbooks, and several are very "modern" cookbooks using microwaves and "20-minute meals" for career moms and those who can't be bothered with home cooking. I kept two Better Homes and Gardens cookbooks (an old one that feeds more, a newer one that includes more recipes), and a McCalls Complete cookbook from 1963, because of its old-fashioned slant. My husband just brought me home a gift of a large tube of garlic bulbs :) and also a package of Swanson Chicken Broth to help with making soup. Making and storing my own chicken stock is actually something I don't have the time, tools, or storage to do on my own (I tried already).

Maybe tonight I can try cleaning out the fridge and washing more miscellaneous items, getting the towels washed, etc. ... I've wanted to create again a more "homey" atmosphere for so many weeks and it just kept getting away from me with the therapy and the holidays and evaluations and work and never-ending phone calls, I just couldn't get to it.

Don't know that it will matter that much to my family if we have dinner AT the table instead of lounging in the living room ... but it will matter to me. We had found some of my mother's old trivets, and I remembered dinners from my childhood where the food was on the table and we ate family-style, passing it all around. And I am so surrounded by modern feminists who feel my ways are backwards and who has time for a family meal these days, with all the over-scheduling and rushing around that goes on.

I also wanted to have some "homey" routines in place soon because in March my husband will start night school and won't be home much, and I wanted something homey to help cement a firm family mainstay to help us all get through this year without drifting apart. In fact, I'm wondering if, in March, maybe I should attend the 6:30 or 8:30 a.m. Mass to free up the rest of Sunday, instead of sleeping in for the noon Mass. I usually go to the noon Mass because Sunday is the one day that I'm not up by 6 a.m. to prepare my family for their days.

Eventually I would like to wear skirts again - I don't have heavy winter skirts because they cost too much in my size (2X), and I don't yet have leggings to keep me warm, but in February, I should have two pairs from an Avon fund raiser for STARS. Otherwise, I wear comfortable pants that are modest and not clingy, not jeans.

Little by little, I am making more progress towards the visions I hold in my heart of how I want my home to be, what I want to create for my family's life and respite from worldly cares, and how best to create it.

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